10. December 2009 by Mr. Andoscia.

It was a great semester.  I hope everyone learned a lot.  Enjoy your holidays.  Mr. Andoscia

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10. December 2009 by student.

Bill Clinton. Eliot Spitzer. Mark Sanford. What do these three politicians have in common? They all admitted to having extramarital affairs. Bill Clinton’s political career seems to have recovered. Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford ended up resigning. Does who these government officials have sex with necessarily affect their performance of the job that they were elected to do? Not necessarily. Why, then, do we make such a big deal when something comes out about their sex lives? I believe that it is our culture’s fascination with celebrity and celebrity scandals. We are so quick to judge other people because, for a moment, we forget about our own problems as we watch someone else experience their own.

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10. December 2009 by student.

I’m getting pretty tired of hearing about people attacking fast food chains such as McDonalds for contributing to obesity in America. They are a business that employs thousands of people and contributes a lot to the economy in a time of recession. Yes, obesity is a HUGE (no pun intended) problem in the United States. Yes, something needs to be done. But attacking the companies like McDonalds and Burger King won’t get us anywhere. No, they don’t advertise their nutritional facts in commercials and on the menus at their restaurants. McDonalds doesn’t specialize in nutritional food. I’m pretty sure this is common knowledge. If you really wanted to know what you were putting into your body before you ate it, you could ask an employee at a fast food restaurant, or check their website. I guarantee you will be able to find that information. But really, it’s common sense that fast food is generally unhealthy and will make you gain weight.Documentaries such as Super Size Me are extreme and radical because most people don’t eat fast food for breakfast, lunch AND dinner. Not to say that they don’t eat it too much. Obviously if something is cheap, convenient and quick, people will buy and eat it. That’s just business marketing. McDonalds has been very successful at it, but they’re not scamming anyone. Adults make the conscious decision every day to eat unhealthy; they have that right to do so. Businesses also have the right to sell a product. It’s not their fault that this country can’t control their eating habits. In a capitalistic society, McDonalds among other fast food chains have been very successful at making money off of this.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Too often do I hear a story on the news about someone that was abducted from their house or neighborhood. The internet is a vast, dangerous place that has made it much easier for sexual predators to find and abduct children and young teenagers from their homes. With social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, it has become all too easy. Older parents seem oblivious to the dangers to the internet. They need to become aware not only of the dangers, but of the several solutions to protecting your children. It starts with becoming aware of your child’s online activities. Know who they are talking to. Know what websites they are logging on to. Know what information they are putting on to their online profiles. It is important to talk to your child about the dangers of putting too much information onto an online profile, such as a last name or address. All of these solutions aren’t too hard or time consuming, but they can do a whole lot to prevent yet another awful tragedy.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Imagine that you are living in Mexico, Cuba, or some other country. You are extremely poor and unable to feed or provide shelter for your family or yourself. In an act of desperation, you cross the border into the United States in hopes of finding a decent paying job so that you don’t have to watch your family starve on the streets.The United States of America is a country that was founded on the policy of immigration. Now it seems that we are turning our back on the very thing that made our country so diverse and great. These illegal aliens just want the same opportunities for them and their families as our ancestors who first came to America hundreds of years ago. The vast majority of them are law abiding, hard working, tax paying people.The problem isn’t the illegal aliens, it’s the flawed system that prevented them from becoming U.S. citizens in a reasonable amount of time. Let us stop focusing our efforts on deporting them and building walls. Let us instead focus our efforts on revamping the extremely outdated and tiring system that forces immigrants to wait for up to 15 years just to become a citizen.

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10. December 2009 by student.

The second amendment to the Constitution states that as citizens of the United States, we have the right to bear arms. I believe that in today’s dangerous society, it is important that citizens can feel safe in their own neighborhoods. One way of ensuring this is to allow licensed handguns to be owned by responsible citizens. I don’t think people with a criminal record should be allowed to own guns. However, there are many people that own a gun simply for self defense. Yes, you can carry pepper spray or a taser, but a gun will always trump that. I look at incidents such as the one at Virginia Tech and wonder if they could have been prevented, or at least the losses minimized, had someone had a gun aside from the killer. Unfortunately, this was impossible, given the school’s gun free “safe zone” policy. I believe that if a criminal really wanted to, he could find a way to obtain a gun. We, as citizens under the Constitution, should be allowed to own a gun if we choose to do so.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the military’s policy that prohibits homosexuals serving in the military to disclose their sexual orientation to anyone, or face being kicked out. It was instated by President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. He originally wanted to allow all gay people to serve openly in the military, but was forced by Republicans in Congress to compromise and allow them to serve, only if their keep their orientation a secret. The notion that someone’s sexual orientation being different from someone else’s somehow makes them less of a soldier or a patriot is ridiculous to me. There are tens of thousands of soldiers that have been discharged from the military, including some very important positions such as translators, simply for disclosing their sexuality to someone. You really have to hand it to those soldiers for being willing to fight and die for a country that doesn’t even want them to serve in the first place simply because of their orientation. Hopefully President Obama eventually delivers on his promise to repeal the act. With two active wars going on, now seems like a good time to repeal it. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was an important stepping stone, but now it is time for the next step.

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10. December 2009 by student.

I believe that if a person is mature enough to make the decision to sign a contract, buy a house or car, and vote for president, they should be psychologically mature enough to handle being allowed to drink alcohol. Anyone can tell you that a lot of teenagers are starting to drink as young as 13 years old. From the moment they enter high school, our youth are exposed to alcohol among other things. As a 19-turning-20 year old, I’ve pretty much had access to alcohol and other substances since I was a young teenager. I actively chose not to abuse them because I know the health risks and dangers. I believe that there are more important things that our cops can be doing than busting 18-20 year olds for drinking alcohol. As long as they’re not drunk driving, I don’t really see a major problem with it. If someone is able enough to die for our country, they should be able to go to a bar and have a drink. Come on, people!

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10. December 2009 by student.

I believe this generation has redefined what it means to be a family. Consider that in the last 50 years,  interracial marriage was illegal and homosexual marriage was unheard of. The definition of the nuclear family in the 50’s was 1 man, 1 woman, (of the same race) and children. Does that mean that a single parent caring for a child isn’t a family? What about a multi-ethnic  family? The definition of family has always been evolving, and will continue to evolve in the future. What that entails, is perhaps society being more accepting of same sex marriage.

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10. December 2009 by student.

There are several different levels of physical child abuse. A slap on the wrist. A whack with the belt. A downright beating. Where can we possibly draw the line? There seems to be too much gray area. I don’t think that physically abusing a child teaches them any valuable lessons. Yes, in the short term they probably won’t make that same mistake again. But in the long term, it will teach them that violence is okay and that it is an important problem solver. It teaches them fear of the person(s) abusing them. Sometimes the parent can take things too far. Things can get out of hand, and guess who suffers? The child. There are plenty of other forms of discipline. Time out. Take a favorite toy away. Ground them. Cancel a family trip. Brutal violence is not a lesson worth learning at such a young age.

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